홈 / Romance / Bound By Forbidden Desire / 챕터 31 - 챕터 40

Bound By Forbidden Desire의 모든 챕터: 챕터 31 - 챕터 40

47 챕터

He Knocks Anyway

I’m still in my work clothes when he knocks.I hadn’t changed out of them. I came home, sat down on the edge of my bed still in my coat, and stared at the wall across from me without really seeing it. At some point, I moved to the sofa,the. I went to the kitchen, filled the kettle and made tea that I didn't drink. I just held the mug until it went cold in my hands. The clock on the kitchen wall said eleven forty-seven when I heard the knock. I knew before I got up that it was him. I don’t know how I knew. I open the door, and his face confirms everything.“It’s late,” I say.“I know.” He doesn’t apologize for it or explain. He just stands in the doorway looking at me with something in his eyes I haven’t seen before. I step back and let him in without asking why he’s here because the answer is already clear.He comes in, and I close the door. We stood in the hallway for a moment without speaking. His jacket is still on, and I can just see an envelope in the inside pocket. He hasn’t co

Richard

Jamie is already there when I arrive. He’s sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea that he hasn't touched. The look on his face when he sees me tells me he got here early on purpose. He wanted to feel the mood before I did. “You didn’t tell me you were coming,” I say.“You didn’t tell me either.” He raises an eyebrow. “Funny that.”Dad appears from the hallway, wiping his hands on a dish towel. His face brightens when he sees us both. “This is a nice surprise from both of you on a Tuesday.”“We were in the area,” Jamie says, avoiding my gaze.“Separately,” I add.Dad looks between us for a moment, then decides not to pursue it. “Sit down. I’ll make coffee.”I sit across from Jamie. He looks at me with those familiar eyes that have been reading me since childhood. I meet his gaze with an expression that means not yet. He gives me the smallest nod and picks up his tea.The kitchen fills with the sounds of Dad moving around. I watch him and try to see the man I now know existed

The Document

She texts me at six forty-five.On my way. Is now okay?It isn’t a question. I text back yes and place the envelope in the center of the dining table. I head to the kettle because I need something to do with my hands while I wait.She arrives twelve minutes later, still in her work clothes, coat on, bag over her shoulder. She has the energy of someone who decided and acted on it quickly. She looks at the envelope on the table the moment she walks in. She doesn’t glance at anything else.“Sit down,” I say. “Do you want anything?”“No.” She’s already pulling out the chair. “Sit with me.”I sit across from her. She focuses on the envelope for a moment without touching it.“Before I open it,” she says. “Tell me what I’m going to find.”“Read it first. Then we’ll talk.”“Nikos.”“I want you to see it yourself. I don’t want my version clouding your thoughts first.”She studies me for a moment, then looks back at the envelope. She pulls it toward her, opens it, takes out the documents, and b

What We Do With It

NikosIt’s past one when she closes the last folder and puts her pen on top of it. “That’s everything we can do tonight,” she says. “Femi needs the financial breakdown by Thursday.” “He’ll have it Wednesday.” She leans back in her chair and rolls her neck to one side. The sound tells me she’s been sitting in the same position for three hours. “Stop looking at the papers. We’re done.” “I’m not looking at the papers.” She raises an eyebrow. “You’re looking at something.” I don’t answer that. She stands and stretches her arms above her head. Her shirt rides up slightly at the waist, so I look away. I pick up the empty coffee cups and take them to the kitchen. “Stay,” I call from the sink. “It’s late.” “It’s one in the morning, not the middle of the night.” “In forty minutes, it will be the middle of the night and you’ll still be on the road.” I come back to the doorway. “The spare room is made up.” She looks at me in the doorway, glances at the sofa, then back at me. “Fine. Bu

Katrina Knows

Katrina texts me on a Tuesday.Lunch. Thursday. Just us. I’ll send the address.I text back okay, and she sends an address twenty minutes later.I told Nikos at the office on Wednesday.“Katrina wants lunch,” I say, standing in his doorway with a coffee I brought for myself and didn’t offer to share.He looks up from his screen. “Just you?”“Just me.”His facial expression changes that he doesn’t quite conceal. “She knows,” he says.“I think she knows something.” I lean against the doorframe. “How much does she actually know about Irene?”“I haven’t told her anything.”“She might have figured it out herself. She was married to your father for a long time.”He sets his pen down. “What are you going to tell her?”“I’m going to listen first. Then decide.” I push off the doorframe. “Don’t look like that.”“Like what?”“Like you want to come.”“I would rather not come.”“You absolutely want to come.”He picks his pen back up. “Go to lunch, Elena.”Katrina is already there when I arrive, wh

Richard Calls

I’m at my desk when my phone lights up with his name. I pause for a moment before I answer, which I’ve never done with my father’s calls before. This change shows how much has shifted in the last few weeks.“Dad.”“Are you free tonight?” His voice is careful. “For dinner. Just us.”I glance at my screen. “Yes. I’m free.”“Seven o’clock. Come here.”“I’ll be there.”He hangs up before I can say anything more. I set the phone down and stare at my desk for a moment, then I text Jamie.Dad called. Dinner tonight. Just me.Jamie replies in thirty seconds. He’s ready. Don’t push. Let him go at his own pace.I ponder that for a moment. Then I text back, How long have you known he was going to do this? Three dots. Then, a while. He needed time.Jamie. Elena. Just go. Let him talk.I put my phone face down and go back to work, spending the rest of the afternoon achieving very little.The kitchen smells like garlic and white wine when I let myself in at seven.He’s at the stove with his back

Bella’s Last Move

The interview is published in the morning, and I read it before my alarm goes off. I’m not sure why I’m awake that early. I sit at the kitchen table with my coffee going cold beside me, holding my phone. I read the whole thing twice before I put it down. The first interview was a business success. I could follow the strategy and respond without losing my composure. This one is different; it discusses me as a man. She talks about how I compartmentalize and can be distant. Some of it is true, and I know which parts. I read those sections without flinching because they’re fair. Then I reach the section about Elena. I read it once and became very still. The coffee shop on Wyndham Street is where she goes when the office gets noisy. The way she redirects questions back to others when she feels uneasy, so smoothly that you don’t notice until the conversation has moved on. I set my phone down on the table and then picked it up again. These details didn’t come from press spying or a

What He Did

Priya closed the door behind her before speaking, which told Elena everything she needed to know about what was coming next. She stood in the office with her laptop tucked under her arm and looked at Elena. “Before this spreads,” Priya said, “I need to tell you what Nikos did this morning.” Elena set her pen down and focused. Priya shared everything—the studio, the corridor outside the green room, and what he said to Bella, word for word, as reported by a producer nearby. She mentioned the six missed calls he hadn’t answered on his way back and how he walked across the studio floor like a man who had said what he needed to say and didn’t care about what happened next. Elena listened to every word without interrupting. When Priya finished, the room was eerily quiet. Elena thanked her, and Priya left. The door clicked shut, and Elena turned her chair toward the window, looking out at the city. He went to a live television studio without telling her. He confronted Bella for her wit

The Conversation

She arrived at eight exactly.He opened the door before she knocked, which meant he had been listening for the lift. She noticed that immediately and said nothing about it and walked in, and he closed the door behind her.She had changed out of her work clothes. He went to pour the wine and handed it to her.She took the glass and sat on the sofa; he sat across from her, and they looked at each other without filling the silence immediately.“You go first,” she said.“The interview”“I don’t want to talk about the interview.” She held his gaze steadily across the space between them.“I already know why you went. I want to talk about what’s underneath it.”He set his glass down.“All right,” he said.“I’m in love with you,” he said. He said it the way he said things he had decided. “That’s what’s underneath all of it. That’s what has been true for a long time.”The room held the words for a moment.She looked at him across the space between them, and something in her face moved through

Two Weeks

Elena POVTwo weeks felt entirely different from what Elena had thought they would be.On Tuesday, dress alterations took an hour longer than expected because the seamstress shared her opinions about the hemline that no one had asked for. On Wednesday, while speaking to the florist, the person on the other end kept suggesting peonies even after Elena had already mentioned roses three times. On Thursday, she went for a rehearsal dinner venue walk-through with her father and Jamie. What should have taken forty minutes stretched to two and a half hours because Jamie had questions about everything while Richard voiced his opinions about parking. Elena stood in a function room in Mayfair, thinking about a conversation from four days earlier on a sofa in Kensington. She kept wondering when she would stop feeling it in her chest every time she thought about it.She was starting to think the answer was never.On the second day, Elena noticed that Nikos was giving her space she hadn't asked fo

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